


Good Cheer

by Sharky857



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Don't copy to another site, OCs Included
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:20:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27759790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sharky857/pseuds/Sharky857
Summary: The prince of the Underworld finds out that, sometimes, coins don't magically show up inside random jars.Especially not when there are also anonymous messages tagging along.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	Good Cheer

**Author's Note:**

> Recently I've fallen down the "Hades" rabbit hole.
> 
> I know that in game you can get to find coins in some conveniently marked jars/pots, after performing some renovations, but my brain wondered: "what if there was *someone* putting the cash in there?"
> 
> That musing led me to create a small OC for the purpose.  
> Said OC resides in Asphodel. In the same musing, I speculated that each region could have its own "shade" that would tip a few coins for some runaway prince from time to time, in a more or less subtle way (depending on how much they would fear any punishment of sort from Hades himself).
> 
> Next thing I knew, the ficlet was born out of nowhere.  
> I also took the liberty and tried to mimick the (overly) formal wording that the game seems to display quite frequently. I... most probably failed at it, but hey! At least i had fun writing! :°D
> 
> P.S.: Said OC has a small ref sheet in the making, thanks to a dear artist friend of mine. <3  
> So, I may update this introduction with a link to that.

It was somewhere past the tenth attempt when he finally reached Asphodel for the first time.

It had taken prince Zagreus at least eight tries to have his first fight against Megaera. That first clash had not really gone as planned, and the young man had been sent back home "the painful way", just as the Fury had prospected.

However, no matter how many times he would have failed, the boy was absolutely obstinated to get out of the Underworld, even  _just once_ .

In addition to this, no matter how many times he had ever been slain, the prince would have come out of his defeats stronger and better prepared for the next escape. Even the Infernal Arms in his possession seemed to grow stronger with each attempt.   
Furthermore, most of the Olympian relatives had been regularly sending him their respective blessing, so to help him with that long and perilous journey, in hope to see him join them on their mountaintop soon enough.   
Zagreus knew that their hope was in vain, for he had no desire to seek a place amongst them in the slightest. He had one single wish, known only to the few associates in the Underworld close to himself -one way or another-, and that wish had absolutely nothing to do with the rest of his family, at least from fatherly side.   
The boy had his rational motives not to share his real purpose with the other gods: had they known he was not to join them, they would have most probably cut at once any aid they had been providing all along, leaving the young man to stew in his own juice.   
No, it was  _not_ the same as lying, despite what his own mild sense of guilt might whisper at times, from the deep of his own moral sense; the young man had never done nor said anything ambiguous to stir such belief in the deities above. They all had been merely assuming that their beloved nephew had been venturing on that journey for that single reason. "Little Hades" had merely let them believe so.

Gods aside, Zagreus could count also on some extra help, right from a few peers in the Underworld.   
Some had been trying to be as subtle as possible, like Sisyphus and Thanatos. Others, like Eurydice, seemed not to mind too much of being caught in the act.

With all this help coming under plenty of forms and ways, prince Zagreus was no longer as surprised whenever he would find even random coins and sustenance in some of the pottery scattered here and there.   
Until he reached Asphodel for the first time, and, right in one of those golden jars, not only he found a small handful of coins, but also a message that caught his attention in an agreeable manner.

_"Do not despair, you can do this!"_

Merely a positive reinforcement, but much appreciated all the same.

Zagreus came to the conclusion that he thought most obvious: those coins and anonymous messages in Asphodel were most probably left by the same hand.   
In time, message after message, he also grew curious to know in person the mind behind this mysterious and always welcomed aid. It was true that coins and nourishment had become quite common to find in pottery scattered across all regions; however, only in Asphodel they seemed to be accompanied by those short missives, at least for what concerned the former.   
By the same token, the young man also desired to meet that individual someday, so to show them his own gratitude personally, at least once.   
Zagreus considered himself to be a much kinder and gentler spirit than his own father, and, unlike Hades himself, he also felt absolutely no dishonour in receiving help of any kind. His personal tutor Achilles had taught him well.

* * *

The young prince nearly got his chance a few risky ventures later.   
After quite a horrendous fight with some wretches in the "Barge of Death", the boy set foot on the next island in Asphodel, stoically resisting the ever-present heat. Like in any other region of the Underworld, his arrival was indifferently welcomed by the shades roaming the pile of rocks and decaying buildings; unlike those in Tartarus, these were red-cloaked souls who once belonged to mere mortals, which an untrained eye could mistake as some strips of magma generated by the river Phlegethon.   
The souls in Asphodel had all belonged to upright civilians. They had committed no heinousness in their lifespan, so they were not condemned to spend their eternity in the lowest pits of the Underworld; at the same time, they had not performed any noteworthy deed while amongst the living, thus they had not gained admittance to the voluptuous magnificence of Elysium either.

All but one of those shades had not been showing actual indifference; this single one merely appeared to be too occupied fiddling with one of the jars to acknowledge the presence of the prince just yet.   
To the young man had not gone unnoticed the muffled yet unmistakable sound of metal hitting the bottom of the jar.

_Coins._

Apparently, Zagreus had found the one shade he had been looking for.   
It was only when he inched closer that the crouched figure heard his footsteps and let out a choked, startled yelp as they sprang back on their feet, nearly knocking the vase over in the process.   
Beneath the hem of a makeshift hood, Zagreus could only catch a glimpse of an alarmed eye, before that shade pulled the blood red  _chlamys_ cape further onto their head until covering almost fully their face, and then... They fled the scene as fast as the god Hermes.   
Caught off guard by such response,  t he young man could do nothing but stand there, a hand slightly risen up in the air, intended to be a cordial greeting.   
Had that reaction perhaps been due to the blood dripping from his clothes..?

Meanwhile, the unknown shade had sought refuge behind the first pillar they had found in their impulsive retreat, flattening their back against it and taking the equivalent of some deep breathes, as to calm down the similarly equivalent of their heart beating like a horse galloping out of control.   
By the gods, that... was close.  _Too close._   
Unbeknownst to prince Zagreus, the shade had planned to keep on offering their humble aid in an anonymous manner, in fear that their actions could be discovered and would have angered Lord Hades so much that he could have sent them into the deepest pits of Tartarurs, if not in an even worse place.   
In the whole Underworld twas no secret what the rebellious prince had been attempting to achieve, and it was no secret either that the father had been attempting to hinder his son's efforts in any possible way. Some even murmured that Lord Hades himself might have even gone to the extent of taking matters into his hands  _personally_ , if so was required.

Despite the danger they felt looming over their head for such actions, the red figure could not refrain themselves from leaving short missives of encouragement to the young man.   
By listening to rumours here and there, they had caught a generic glimpse of the reason why their prince had been attempting such deed, and they found it to be a very sweet thought from his part.   
In addition, the still unnamed shade themselves had a reserved desire to leave the Asphodel region, for they were not really fond of how it appeared to be: a wasteland made of nothing but hot magma, skeletal remains and some rocks big enough for the shades to stand on. Even other shades seemed to agree that Asphodel, in its current state, seemed not a place fit for common yet good-hearted shades.   
Words of mouth had it that there had been a time when the whole region looked nothing like that, but apparently none had been there long enough to remember exactly how Asphodel had looked in more ancient times.   
Alas, for commoner shades such as themselves, a departure was bound to remain nothing but a utopian dream. Ordinary shades had no authority nor divine powers to break free from their boundaries, even just temporarily.   
On the other hand, this young and rebellious man was certainly not an ordinary shade, and seemed to have what it took to venture throughout the Underworld; not only he could count on abilities passed onto him by the bond of blood with his very father, not only he had received the finest training in combat from one of the greatest heroes, and was equipped with the most sanguinary of Infernal Arms, but also rumours had it that prince Zagreus had been receiving aids from none other than the Olympians themselves.   
With all this combined, the boy could not only have his chance and travel across the diverse regions, but also be able to reach the surface, the world of the mortals. Which was, in fact, the planned and ultimate destination of his tormented journey.

For that, the shade felt no envy in the slightest towards their prince, but was rather quite elated that someone, down there, could have this opportunity. Thus they decided to offer their help too, as meagre as it might have been.   
So far the shade had not heard of anyone getting a punishment of sort for aiding the boy. Even so, the red-cloaked figure swore to themselves not to let prince Zagreus catch them in the act ever again.   
_Just in case._

***

"... Greetings and farewell, I guess..?" An even more puzzled Zagreus muttered to himself as he lowered his hand. That lone shade  _really_ seemed in quite a hurry to get away from him.

Gone the initial bemusement, the young man shrugged that matter off; he could have tried to pursuit the red-cloaked figure and demand an explanation like that, but he had no time to waste and did not feel like scaring them any more than necessary. Hence he moved to the cluster of pots and jars instead.   
Sure enough, right the vase with which the panicky Shade was seemingly fiddling contained yet again a small handful of coins and a new message.

_"The Bone Hydra may be a tough foe to slay, but you are tougher."_

So, the boy reasoned as he stuffed his pouch with the coins, there  _actually_ was a connection between the coins, the anonymous messages and that single, extremely easy to startle shade he had just seen.   
Zagreus did not really have a chance of even breathing a single word with them, but he felt like he had made some progress. A very tiny one, most certainly, but a progress nonetheless.

* * *

In the meantime, the prince made it to Elysium, facing new foes and getting slain on multiple and diverse occasions, much to Hypnos' (quite morbid) enthrallment and snarky remarks.   
The young man had even made it as far as reaching the arena of that region, and had started to battle against an ever-irritating king and his fellow associate. Regrettably, those first attempts had not gone too well either, for the boy had found himself outnumbered under several perspectives.   
The outcome of those early skirmishes had inflated the already sizable ego of king Theseus, along with further honing the skills of prince Zagreus himself, besides fueling him up with a renewed determination.   
The irksome king of Athens could boast all he wanted, the boy thought, next time  _he_ would have been the one sent back crawling into his own inglorious pit.

Rumours of Zag's progress kept spreading far and wide across all regions of the Underworld; the familiar, brief annotations he kept finding when smashing the pottery in Asphodel had been yet another confirmation, alongside the scoffing he would receive from his own father, each time the young man would emerge from the pool of Styx.

_\- "You are getting closer and closer each day. Good job!"_   
_\- "Soul-sucking butterflies may sound scary, but you certainly proved them that you can be scarier."_   
_\- "Please, beat that pretentious king senseless even on my behalf. - P.S.: Be a bit gentler with the bull. He seems to be a nice lad."_

Each message radiated such benevolent warmth that the young prince always felt partly disgruntled to carry on with what the anonymous shade kept requesting at the end of every small scroll:

“ _I beg of you: make yourself sure to get rid of this message as soon as you will acknowledge it, so that no trace shall remain of its existence.”_

And in Asphodel, there was only one efficient way to get rid of such items: ripping the paper to shred and then feeding the remains to the flaming lava of the river Phlegethon.

* * *

It was on his forty-seventh run -the Scrying Pool in his own room never failed to keep track of his activity- when the boy coincidentally met the unknown shade in person. This time with a chance of a small chat as well.

After his skirmish with a handful of vicious spreaders, the rebellious prince decided to pay a long overdue visit to Eurydice.   
As soon as he hopped on the small dock, besides hearing the familiar composition of the muse, Zagreus also spotted a likewise familiar figure; this time, the cloaked spirit was crouching down, perfectly still, their hands leant delicately on the short jar they had just filled up with the usual coins. They were giving him the back, as if even the shade was like entranced by the crystalline, melodious voice of the muse who lived merely a couple flight of stairs ahead.   
Seeing it as an opportunity to try and strike a small conversation, the boy fastened his Varatha spear on one shoulder and carefully approached the shade, while wiping a drop of blood that he felt sliding down his left temple -merely a scratch left by a close encounter with some sharp claws; it would have fully healed up by the time he had reached his next stop-.

"She has a beautiful voice, has she not?" Zagreus hummed quietly, once he had approached the unknown soul from behind.

From beneath the blood red  _chlamys,_ a feminine voice sighed in wonderment.

"She does..."

Then, as if abruptly realising that she was not alone anymore, the cloaked figure tensed up as she gasped and turned slowly, partially revealing the alarmed look that Zag had already seen at one time.

_Oh, by the gods... Not again!_ , the mysterious shade frantically thought to herself.

What Zagreus did not know was that his nameless aid had been trying to be as discreet as possible with her actions. The first time she got caught, the shade simply panicked and fled, swearing to herself that she would have been twice as careful in a future moment.   
Her efforts in prudence had been seemingly repaid, for she had not run into that rebellious prince anymore.  _Until now._   
All it took was a mere couple minutes of inattention, listening to that muse.   
Had it even been just "a couple minutes", for that matter? Ah, who cares! There was no real sense of time in the Underworld, after all.   
All the shade knew was that, despite all, she had been caught red-handed one more time.

_Blast it._

The boy saw the shade fumbling on her feet, ready to flee the scene once again.

"No, please. Wait!"

The other stopped on her track, half turning only sufficiently to cast a glance back, over the shoulder.

"Look, I was just looking for an opportunity to show some gratitude."

The cloaked figure half turned to him, only to stop on her tracks once again a moment later.

"I... I do not know what you might be  ** referring ** to." A tense whisper answered Zagreus' words as the shade immediately diverted her gaze.

It was as bright as the incandescent magma of the Phlegethon that this shade was on full alert. It was not just the inquietude in her murmuring, it was also the faint shuddering. As if she had been already before a highly vexed Hades, waiting for him to strike her down with the ghastliest of punishments.

Zagreus cracked a small, affable smile as his posture relaxed, a manner to show her that he was no real menace.

"The coins." He replied softly. "And those kind words of encouragement. They are all your handiwork, are they not?"

The young man saw the other waver for a moment and sighed lightly.

"Listen, I saw you twice." The boy carried on, always in that gentle tone. "Both times you were right next to a jar or a pot which was later found conveniently full of coins, besides containing a gratifying message written by a benevolent hand." He explained, then concluded: "Do you not think that this may be quite peculiar for a mere coincidence?"

The shade stood still and silent for another instant, only the tireless voice of Eurydice from a short distance kept filling the scorching air of Asphodel.

"Please, Your Highness..." The shade slowly moved closer to Zagreus, whispering as if she wanted to make herself sure that only the two of them could hear her words. "Do not let your father know about this... Nor  _anyone else_ , for that matter."

While Zag himself could understand all too well the reason behind such supplication, albeit a part of himself could not help but find it kind of ironic. The whole Asphodel would have fallen under the freezing cold of Demeter before the boy could even think about snitching anyone in such fashion.

"And surrender a valuable aid?" The young man inquired with a playful smirk. "Fear not, I will not breath a single word with Lord Hades about this, uh... Miss...?"

The boy trailed off uncertain; even though another ally of himself, Zagreus still had no knowledge of her name.

The other took the makeshift hood down, revealing her face to Zagreus.

"Euphrasia." The shade smiled back timidly.

She appeared to be a young woman, who probably had belonged to a wealthy caste when she was alive, as some different features seemed to suggest: her overall plump shape, along with the intricate style of her light brown hair, and even the fine quality of the fabric of her own  _peplum_ , albeit the lower trim appeared like singed by some heat source.   
Had Achilles ever seen this shade in person as well, he would have surely noticed that the only thing supposedly out of place was the blood red  _chlamys_ cape itself, held in place by a  _fibula_ brooch shaped like a golden cornucopia and adorned by some small gemstones across the larger part.   
But the legendary warrior himself was not present, and prince Zagreus had little to no knowledge at all about clothing in the human realm. Therefore he never had a reason to wonder why who once was a wealthy woman would be wearing a garment mostly fit for men within military ranks.

The shade then performed a small bow. "It's... It is an honour to receive your words of gratitude, prince Zagreus. Even though my help may not be as great."

Zagreus smiled back with endearing frankness. "As modest as it may look to you, Euphrasia, all the help around here shall receive the due recognition."

At those words, the smile of the shade widened as she closed the little distance that still existed between the two of them.   
Whispering a "thank you" full of gratitude, Euphrasia slipped one last message into the hands of prince Zagreus, before turning and leaving in her hurried pace.   
The young man looked at her go until, to his eyes, she became one with the hazy, red tint of Asphodel. Then he lowered his look to the small paper roll left in his hands and unfolded it.

_"You truly have a heart of gold, I am sure that you will fulfill your goals."_

Zagreus smiled to himself, before a second note slipped down from that first one. The young prince caught it in midair, before it could fall on the scorched ground.

_"P.S.: Should you ever stumble across my brother Androkles in Elysium, please try to divert his support from that pretentious king."_

The boy blinked, processing that last sentence for a moment before letting out a faint, amused chuckle as he folded both notes in half and proceeded to get rid of them as some shade had always desired. Apparently, Euphrasia had a brother in Elysium who was one of the arena supporters to the "pretentious king" Theseus.

And Zagreus just so happened to know  _exactly_ how to mortify a “pretentious king”, right in front of his big audience.

"This might be most certainly arranged, milady." Zagreus hummed to himself as he made his way to Eurydice's place. After collecting his due coins, of course.


End file.
